


Rise

by potentiality_26



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Established Relationship, F/F, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-30 01:15:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11452947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potentiality_26/pseuds/potentiality_26
Summary: From underneath the shouting and gunfire, Roxy’s voice rang clear as a bell over the comms: “If you die, I’m gonna kill you.” She sounded matter-of-fact, for the most part, but there was the faintest tremor around ‘die.’  Amelia couldn’t decide how to feel about that.An unusual mission and a close call.





	Rise

**Author's Note:**

> For the tumblr prompt: "If you die, I'm gonna kill you." Title from (or maybe inspired by, since it's just one word) "Stay Alive" by José González.
> 
> Not Brit-picked.

From underneath the shouting and gunfire, Roxy’s voice rang clear as a bell over the comms: “If you die, I’m gonna kill you.” She sounded matter-of-fact, for the most part, but there was the faintest tremor around ‘die.’  Amelia couldn’t decide how to feel about that.  

Everything had gone wrong on this mission, from the very start.  It was supposed to be Roxy breaking into the compound, for one thing.  Only all her investigations and preparations had taken twice as long as expected.  It ran up against a mission she was scheduled to go on with Galahad. She’d gone- and promptly broken her ankle.  With Roxy grounded, they decided to send Percival because he had a comparable skillset.  Then, just a day before he was set to go in solo, a last-minute bug revealed that the digital information they were meant to destroy was locked behind several ingenious firewalls that could only be breached from within the compound itself.  Amelia had elected to go with him.

She and Percival came in through the back dressed as a disposal crew, but their intrusion was detected too early, and now… Now Amelia was patched into their system from the compound’s security office.  It was their one bit of good luck so far, that they had managed to slip inside while most of the guards were looking the other way.  On the security feeds from all over the compound, Amelia could see guards moving to surround them on multiple sides.  She was holed up in a private inner office while Percival had built himself a barricade of chairs and old monitors beyond. He was holding his ground well, but there was no telling how long it would last.

Roxy obviously knew that, or she wouldn’t have made her rather confusing threat. Amelia didn’t know whether to tease her or not.  “How exactly would you-”

“It’s an expression.”  Roxy sounded even less matter-of-fact than before.  “You’re not supposed to be there.  Neither of you.”

Goodbyes had been a little awkward.  Their relationship was hardly a secret, but they liked to be discreet and it was difficult to steal a kiss in an out-of-the-way corner as they normally would around Roxy’s cast and crutches.  Of course, normally it was Roxy leaving and Amelia staying behind- so when Amelia had imagined this situation it had always been reversed.   _I love you_ , she had imagined saying.   _I think I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, why couldn’t you work in a Starbucks or something?_ It made little sense now that she was the one in danger, now that she remembered that- as many close calls as Lancelot had had- she was the one who had died- or seemed to die- on Roxy once before.  Roxy deserved better than to hear those words- some of them for the first time- when she could do nothing about them.

So.  Amelia just had to not die, then.  That was all there was to it.        

Through all this she had been at work cracking the last firewall, and now she was in, saving a backup of the information to a drive for Merlin’s perusal and deleting as she went.  At the same time, she started examining the screens around her with more care.  “Percival,” she said.  “I’ll have this done in a minute or so.  And I think I can see a way out.”

One section of the building had been left unguarded because it was on perpetual lockdown- assumedly because it was where the compound’s rather explosive R&D was located.  If- _when_ \- Amelia could break through those safeguards they would have a straight shot to the lower levels and back out the way they came. Excepting, of course, the half-dozen guards between them and that section.  

Percival pointed that out.  “If you have any suggestions…”

Amelia looked again at the files.  “I think I do.”  She set her jaw.  This would work, because it had to.  Because she wasn’t making Roxy- who was quiet now, letting her do her job- watch her die again.

“According to the manifests, there should be night vision helmets in there with you.” She watched on the screen that showed the outer office as Percival crawled over to the weapons cabinet.  “If I take out the power-”

“We’ll be able to get past them in the dark easily enough,” he filled in.  “Just one problem.”

“What?”

“I can only find one helmet.”

Amelia cursed inwardly.  Most of that technology must have been in a separate armory somewhere.  She decided it didn’t matter as long as the guards weren’t wearing them, and they weren’t.  “You’ll just have to lead me.  I trust you.”  

“You had better,” Percival said.  “My niece will strangle me if anything happens to you.”

“Have you been threatened as well?”

“Creatively.”  For the first time in all the time she’d known him, Percival laughed. Amelia was still getting used to thinking of him as anything but a coworker, but moments like this helped.

Amelia pocketed the drive and counted down until she cut the power. She spent the next few minutes- minutes that seemed to go by in seconds and crawl past like hours at the same time- tucked against Percival’s side as they ducked around hallways and down stairs. She shut her ears to the gunfire, and just… thought about Roxy.  Thought about her hair mussed and her face pillow-creased.  About her sleepy voice saying _good morning_.  About her saying it until that hair was grey, and that face was creased by more than just the pillow.  It might not be possible, not with the dangerous lives they both led, but it might be enough to _try_.  

By the time someone got the power back up, they were almost to the van. Percival covered her back while she climbed inside and started the engine, careful to keep low.  He hauled himself into the passengers’ seat, and then they were rolling out, out of the compound and down the bumpy little road toward civilization.  In the rear-view mirror, Amelia saw the compound shake with an explosion.

Percival shrugged.  “You said it was their R&D section.  I thought I’d give them something to remember us by.”

“I think they’ll remember us pretty well.”

He laughed again.

For the first time since things had come to a head, Roxy broke in: “You’re both all right?”

Amelia found herself unexpectedly unable to speak, so it was Percival who said, “All present and correct.”

Roxy let out a breath.  In the background, Amelia heard indistinct cheers.  “I guess I’ll have to keep you alive, then,” she said, back to matter-of-fact.  Her voice was warm with relief, and gently teasing.

“I guess you will,” Amelia whispered. 

There wasn’t much left to say, not in that van, not with Percival and most likely the entire tech division watching.  But soon she would be home, and there would be no more talk of death, just life.  Just the future.  

**Author's Note:**

> Come see me on [tumblr](http://potentiality-26.tumblr.com/).


End file.
